Influential Moments in City Planning Meetings : A Study of Decision-Making Situations in a Jordanian Municipality

LUND UNIVERSITY

Influential Moments in City Planning Meetings

A Study of Decision-Making Situations in a Jordanian Municipality

Al Khalidi, Marwa

2018

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Al Khalidi, M. (2018). Influential Moments in City Planning Meetings: A Study of Decision-Making Situations in a Jordanian Municipality. Lund University, Faculty of Engineering.

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Influential Moments in City Planning

Meetings

A Study of Decision-Making Situations in a Jordanian

Municipality

Marwa Al Khalidi

DOCTORAL DISSERTATION

By due permission of the Faculty of Engineering, Lund University, Sweden. To be defended at A:C, A-huest, LTH. Sölvegatan 24, Lund

Friday 12 October 2018 at 13:15.

Faculty opponent Docent Jonathan Metzger

LUND UNIVERSITY

Department of Architecture and Built Environment

Faculty of Engineering P.O. Box 118 SE-221 00 LUND

DOCTORAL DISSERTATION Date of issue 2018.09.18 Author(s) Marwa Al Khalidi Sponsoring organization

Title and subtitle

Influential Moments in City Planning Meetings. A Study of Decision-Making Situations in a Jordanian Municipality.

Abstract

The shaping of a city and its future relates to official decisions made in city planning meetings, where daily planning matters and decision-making processes adapt to changing societal circumstances. The interest of this research lies in how planning is officially established, managed and practiced in the setting of a Jordanian city, and its local districts. This interest leads the research to observational studies of the mechanisms of municipal council meetings and of the institutional setting of official city planning. One important backdrop for this research are the conditions of the study context tied to rapid changes that have been made to planning objectives due to changing geo-political circumstances and large numbers of migrants. More directly, the research has the basic purpose of improving the understanding of the manifold aspects that surround and make up a decision process, by including actors or relations of various kinds that can have an influence on the procedures.

Through participant observations and drawing on actor-network theory (ANT), this research looks closely into how decision-making agency can be both formally and informally delegated to human actions, to material objects, to technologies, and to the rules and modes of institutional ordering. These heterogeneous aspects are studied in relation to, but also derived from, empirical investigations of the planning culture that, as I see it here, encompasses the norms, values, and historical significance that may influence and define how planning is practiced. I investigate the conditions on which the meeting – as the most common decision-making body – depends to proceed in normal and destabilised situations. The observations are presented as narratives that convey situations of destabilization that were observed and selected through applying a ‘lens of controversy’ as a methodological tool. The analytical discussions that follow these narratives bring new insights by reflecting on the observed meetings, actions, and institutional environments with the help of architecture- and design-oriented actor-network-theory and relational planning theory, as well as organisation theory, decision-making studies and meeting studies.

The detailed and situated studies in this thesis focus on the important role of the material and spatial components of the planning setting. They also highlight the importance of the setting as a flexible network that supports decision-making processes with various types of delegation from inside and outside the meeting room. This has for instance led to views on the temporal territorial productions that are created in interaction with the setting of the planning institution. The results also highlight the heterogeneity of actors with influence, and how time-related features such as timeliness and durabilization in meetings can influence the decision-making process. The research concludes in elevating several networked mechanisms and principles of influence. Principles like ‘redundancy delegation’, ‘transistor tactics’ and ‘recovering destabilizations’, and concepts such as ‘temporal institutional territorialisation’, and ‘state of predisposition’ represent such significant figures of thought that are found to be of interest, and that could be given further attention in the theoretical as well as practical analysis of planning and planning settings. This research hopes also to contribute to discussions regarding how to cope with emergent situations using long- and short-term planning in the development of policies and means for future modes of planning.

Key words

decision-making, planning culture, city planning meetings, Jordan, destabilizations, heterogeneity, participant observation, controversy, actor-network theory, influential moments, narrative

Classification system and/or index terms (if any)

Supplementary bibliographical information Language

English

ISSN and key title ISBN (printed)

978-91-7740-114-8

ISBN (electronic)

978-91-7740-115-5 Recipient’s notes Number of pages

257

Price Security classification

I, the undersigned, being the copyright owner of the abstract of the above-mentioned dissertation, hereby grant to all reference sources permission to publish and disseminate the abstract of the above-mentioned dissertation.

Copyright © Marwa Al Khalidi Faculty of Engineering, LTH Lund University

Sweden

ISBN: 978-91-7740-114-8 (printed version) ISBN: 978-91-7740-115-5 (electronic version) Cover design: Marwa Al Khalidi

Printed in Sweden by E-husets tryckeri, Lund University Lund 2018

Abstract

The shaping of a city and its future relates to official decisions made in city planning meetings, where daily planning matters and decision-making processes adapt to changing societal circumstances. The interest of this research lies in how planning is officially established, managed and practiced in the setting of a Jordanian city, and its local districts. This interest leads the research to observational studies of the mechanisms of municipal council meetings and of the institutional setting of official city planning. One important backdrop for this research are the conditions of the study context tied to rapid changes that have been made to planning objectives due to changing geo-political circumstances and large numbers of migrants. More directly, the research has the basic purpose of improving the understanding of the manifold aspects that surround and make up a decision process, by including actors or relations of various kinds that can have an influence on the procedures.

Through participant observations and drawing on actor-network theory (ANT), this research looks closely into how decision-making agency can be both formally and informally delegated to human actions, to material objects, to technologies, and to the rules and modes of institutional ordering. These heterogeneous aspects are studied in relation to, but also derived from, empirical investigations of the planning culture that, as I see it here, encompasses the norms, values, and historical significance that may influence and define how planning is practiced. I investigate the conditions on which the meeting – as the most common decision-making body – depends to proceed in normal and destabilised situations. The observations are presented as narratives that convey situations of destabilization that were observed and selected through applying a ‘lens of controversy’ as a methodological tool. The analytical discussions that follow these narratives bring new insights by reflecting on the observed meetings, actions, and institutional environments with the help of architecture- and design-oriented actor-network-theory and relational planning theory, as well as organisation theory, decision-making studies and meeting studies.

The detailed and situated studies in this thesis focus on the important role of the material and spatial components of the planning setting. They also highlight the importance of the setting as a flexible network that supports decision-making processes with various types of delegation from inside and outside the meeting room. This has

interaction with the setting of the planning institution. The results also highlight the heterogeneity of actors with influence, and how time-related features such as timeliness and durabilization in meetings can influence the decision-making process. The research concludes in elevating several networked mechanisms and principles of influence. Principles like ‘redundancy delegation’, ‘transistor tactics’ and ‘recovering destabilizations’, and concepts such as ‘temporal institutional territorialisation’, and ‘state of predisposition’ represent such significant figures of thought that are found to be of interest, and that could be given further attention in the theoretical as well as practical analysis of planning and planning settings. This research hopes also to contribute to discussions regarding how to cope with emergent situations using long- and short-term planning in the development of policies and means for future modes of planning.

Keywords: decision-making, planning culture, city planning meetings, Jordan, destabilizations, heterogeneity, participant observation, controversy, actor-network theory, influential moments, narrative

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

A Short Prologue

PART I: SETTING THE SETTING

1

Introductory Chapter

1.1 Understanding Decision-Making in City Planning Meetings ... 16

1.2 Research Aims, Purpose and Questions ... 18

1.3 Personal Aims and Motivations ... 20

1.4 Methodological Approaches and Main Theoretical Domains ... 23

1.5 Disposition of the Thesis; Empirical Fragments with a Successive Theoretical Approach ... 27

2

The Planning Culture and the Local Planning Setting of Nodecity

2.1 Introduction about Planning Culture ... 31

2.2 Jordan and the Development of its Planning Culture ... 33

2.3 The Planning Setting of the City ... 45

3.1 Ethnographical Approaches ... 78

3.2 Actor-Network Theory – a Repertory for Sensing Interaction with Matter ... 84

3.3 Through the Lens of Controversy ... 86

3.4 A Narrative Style Capturing and Situating Influential Moments ... 94

3.5 A Brief Note on Situatedness as a Feature of the Methodology ... 99

PART II: DESTABILIZATION IN DECISION-MAKING

Interlude: Notes on Destabilization and Influential Moments

4

Talking and Acting

4.1 Deviations in Talking and Acting ... 106

4.2 Strategic and Tactical Acting ... 119

4.3 Postlude (1): Talking and Acting from Beyond - Maintaining Matters of Concern ... 129

5

Matter Matters

5.1 Mobile Phones ... 139

5.2 Welcome! Have a Seat ... 151

5.3 Air Conditioning (AC) ... 159

5.4 Postlude (2): Objects and Technologies Designating the Boundaries of Influence ... 169

6

Modes of Ordering as Related to the Setting

6.1 The Meeting Room Floor ... 180

6.2 A Ripple of Disruption in the Setting: A Mobile Destabilization ... 194

6.3 Postlude (3): Modes of Disciplining and Recovering in a Planning Setting ... 210

PART III: CONCLUDING REMARKS

7

Concluding Remarks

7.1 Recapitulations ... 216

7.2 Notes on Time ... 228

Epilogue

Summary in Swedish/ Populärvetenskaplig sammanfattning

Acknowledgements

Undertaking this Ph.D. has been a truly life-changing experience for me. It has been a period of intense learning, not only in the world of research and science, but also in my personal life. And this experience would not have been possible without the engagement of many people who kindly aided me in many ways, facilitating and enhancing my work with their support.

This Ph.D. work has been financially supported by a scholarship provided by the institution of my hometown university in Jordan, Yarmouk University, for which I am thankful. I would also like to thank the staff of the planning institutions in Jordan where I did my empirical work for enabling me to visit their offices, to attend their meetings, and to observe their decision-making operations.

From the moment I arrived in Sweden and stepped down from the train from Copenhagen airport, I was received by the outstretched hand of my main supervisor, Gunnar Sandin, who helped me with the overweight bags I had brought with me from Jordan. I am immensely grateful to him for his generous efforts in supporting my journey, for motivating me to pursue it, and for making this book better. Thank you Gunnar for the insightful comments, close readings of my texts, interesting talks, and witty guidance, which have enriched my capabilities of research and always helped me to see things differently. I also thank my co-supervisors: Emma Nilsson, Catharina Sternudd, and Marwa Dabaieh, for their much-appreciated contributions at different stages of the research. Each of them has left her mark on the research’s trajectory, guiding it to many enlightened choices. I am also deeply grateful to Mattias Kärrholm for his invaluable comments during the half- and final seminars, in addition to the quick talks during coffee breaks and lunches, the many borrowed books, and great advices, all of which have enriched the final product of this book, and inspired many insights. I would also like to express my gratitude to Albena Yaneva for her comments on my research during individual meetings and courses, and for her kind encouragement and motivation. I was lucky to get the opportunity to take part in courses facilitated by the National Swedish Research School (ResArc) with valuable seminars and meetings with other doctoral students. Furthermore, I give my sincere

thanks to Henry Diab for the kind assistance securing many practical situations at several critical moments at the beginning of this Ph.D. journey.

The task of carrying out Ph.D. studies has also been supported by the benevolent embrace of a large number of friends, colleagues, and staff at the A-Huset (School of Architecture in Lund), which has helped ease the difficulties of my journey, and gladdened my everyday life here. Among the people I met there I want to extend my gratitude to my former colleagues and good friends within the research subject of Architecture: Paulina Prieto de La Fuente, Johan Wirdelöv, Ida Sandström, Fredrik Torisson, Jesper Magnusson, Sandra Kopljar, and the colleagues of ResArc. I also want to express my gratitude for the wonderful companionship, cheerful laughs, and interesting talks with great friends like Kajsa Lawaczeck-Körner, Laura Liuke, Maria Rasmussen, Eja Pedersen, Lisandra Fachinello Krebs, Carlos Krebs, Henrik Davidsson, Martin Svansjö, Niko Gentile, and many others. Particularly, I owe my deepest gratitude to Anna Pettersson and Anna Wahlöö for their invaluable friendship, endless support, kindness, and encouragement, especially through the rough times. I am also thankful to the administrative staff in the A-Huset: Hans Follin, Helene Sveningsson, Lena Andersson, Camilla Sjölin, Jonas Brasjö Albin and Katarina Lans for their generous help with many personal and professional errands. Also, many thanks to Justina Bartoli for the sensitive reading, great help, and expertise in editing the language of this thesis.

The four years that took me away from my home in Jordan have allowed me to be part of other homes here in Sweden, where I shared many warm moments of family gatherings, joyful Christmas days, and intimate talks. I am fortunate and grateful to have been generously treated as part of the Borgström family: thank you Carina, Johan, Emil, Klara, and Johanna for the great summers, for your great care, and your support. Speaking of my Swedish homes, thank you Marika, Vasko, Marija, and Kristijan, with whom I shared childish happiness, and to whom I ran whenever I sought a relaxing sanctuary.

Far away from my immediate surroundings and life in Sweden, but spiritually always present throughout my everyday practicalities, my family in Jordan has meant a lot to me during this time. I would like to thank my parents for their prayers, their absolute confidence in me, and for their encouragement. Thank you, Batool, Khalid, Heba, and

with all my fuss in the ups and downs of this journey.

Finally, as I am afraid that I have missed some names, I would like to express my all-embracing appreciation and gratitude to everyone who has been related to my Ph.D. experience, contributed to developing it and helped make it an unexpected yet exciting, life-changing experience.

To all humans, and non-humans who/which made a difference in the course of this experience, thank you!

Lund, August 24, 2018 Marwa Al Khalidi

A Short Prologue

“Like life, research is the outcome of interaction” (Law, 1994: vii)

This book does not only present the results of a PhD research undertaking, but also gathers some of the personal interactions with planning practice that lie behind the investigations presented here. My interest in the subject of planning emerged through practical experiences over several years before my research education, and this interest has developed into an investigation of a planning culture and its decision-making processes. My familiarity with, and curiosity about, the institutional context of planning started with an early experience in a planning project in a Jordanian municipality. My involvement with the same municipality continued when I later had the chance to work as a civil servant there, which further reinforced my ambition to understand more about the scope of influence that the practice of decision-making can have on a city’s future. Transformed through my research studies, this ambition is temporarily concluded here with this dissertation and its notes on what happens during city planning meetings – which have proved to be much more than simply a group of people coming together to meet and discuss topics as usual. I have become more aware of the close circumstances of the meetings, which lead to decisions that directly influence the spatial and architectural environment of the city. In this thesis, I propose that the closed door of a meeting room full of representatives and other attendees, sitting in their assigned chairs around a meeting table inside four walls, conceals more than simple city planning meetings in the formal sense. Following the advice of ‘just describe what you will observe’ and ‘keep your senses open to everything around you’, I carried out the empirical part of this research when I passed through that meeting room door and could attend the municipal council city planning meetings, and to some extent also the related local district committee meetings, over the course of several months. These meetings thus became my primary source of information about decision-making.

I took part in them by observing anything and anyone that could have a significant relation to the decision-making processes. When the chairperson of the council, or of the committee uttered the opening phrase: “Okay, let’s start the meeting now”, the decision-making on matters deciding the future of the city would officially commence. Sanctioned by this spoken sentence, many things would start to relate to

positions of attendees in the room, and orders otherwise hidden to a newcomer would reveal themselves. Technologies will be turned on, microphones transmitting parts of the communication, air conditioning units blowing out cool air, etcetera. Along with the formal discussions, readings of agendas and documents about the issues of the day would be communicated. Multiple voices would start to overlap, and many hidden and half-hidden whispers would start to appear in the room. It took me a while to realize that this decision-making process was far beyond any merely rule-based social interactions. The intensity of what I encountered was such that I occasionally needed a moment to simply let my eyes rest during my observations, in order to unriddle the diversity of interrelated utterances, roles, and actions indicating a more complex construct of decisions.

Throughout the journey of this research, I crossed paths with a number of theories and concepts that would help me understand the complexity of decision-making processes. I adhered more closely to some of them, while others had to be sifted out. These theories have opened many doors, aiding the realization as well as analysis of the empirical examples that I brought into this research, and providing me with insights into views on decision-making conditioned by social, political, organizational and planning aspects. I have been inspired by all of these views; ultimately however I have striven to tread my own theoretical and methodological path, and by that hopefully opened another new door to the field of city planning studies, as well as to the practical field of planning.

1

Introductory Chapter

1.1 Understanding Decision-Making in City Planning

Meetings

This thesis addresses decision-making in city planning meetings, more precisely in relation to the level of a municipal council and local committee meetings, as it is situated in a Jordanian city with over a million inhabitants. For reasons of anonymity and generalization, I call this city ‘Nodecity’ throughout this thesis. In this research, the decision-making process in official city planning meetings is seen as an essential stage of any planning process. It is part of the nature of planning “involving a variety of actors communicating, negotiating, bargaining and arguing over the ‘right’ way forward” (Tewdwr-Jones, 2002:65). In Jordan, many planning processes related to the city – like spatial planning, city resources management, and other municipal services – are handled within the institutional responsibilities of the municipality, or in its departments, as is the case in Nodecity Municipality. Most of the official decisions are finalised in the municipal council, and local committee meetings have direct effects on the city. This interest leads the research in the direction of close studies of the mechanisms of these meetings and of the institutional setting of official city planning.

In this research, I do a close study of how planning is debated and decided in these institutional settings of official decision-making. Decision-making processes can be studied from an organizational point of view, with the intent of investigating rationality in decision-making (March, 1994), and could be examined as processual activity (Huisman, 2001) through which final decisions are chosen from among several alternatives (Langley et al., 1995). However, the interest of this research is not so much on verbal dialogue or on policy aspects, and nor does it investigate the rationality of decision-making that looks specifically to efficiency as regards coming to conclusions or trying to find the best communicational or organizational principles. Instead, a decision-making process, as I see it in this research, is a relational activity anchored in several domains: from human actions, legislative interpretation, and the following of institutional rules and routines, to interacting with architectural spaces, surrounding materialities, objects present, and common technologies.

Introductory Chapter

Seen thus, the dynamic forces of the decision-making process can depend on the interplay between authoritative and allocative systems, influenced by situated interactions of different sets of actors and structured by institutional and governance driving forces (Healey, 2003). Most importantly, the interactions within decision-making that are seen in this research are not limited to interactions between human actors, but can instead be depicted as an activity that engages an orchestration of heterogeneous relations that can include both human and non-human agency. These relations are acted out and to some extent determined by what I define here as the planning setting. The planning setting, not least its material and architectural spaces, is a supportive network in the decision-making process that is important in its own right, facilitating various wills and purposes – not only from a formal perspective, but also with various relations that not always are regarded as formalised or basic for the stability of decision-making processes. In other words, the setting provides the socio-material space in which decision-making can relate to the surrounding local, historical, institutional, and political aspects, and the routines according to which planning is practiced, and decisions are made – routines which define the specific planning culture.

Through several episodes of decision-making processes, in this thesis I describe the everyday routines of how they are officially established, and how they are performed, managed and situated in the meetings. Thus, the notion of making is essential here, indicating the dynamic aspect, and taking into consideration the temporality aspect that made my observations open to any emergent or unexpected actors that could have influence on the process. Furthermore, I pay particular attention to decision-making processes as they are subjected to states of destabilization, i.e. when the constitutive relations of the process (dialogical, material, institutional, and legal) are destabilized from what they usually are, which can ultimately affect the final decisions. I argue, following Callon et al. (2009), that tracing the state of destabilization in the decision-making process is significant for pinpointing crucial actors, and that effectual relations that are often neglected can become visible and therefore be regarded in relation to their importance for the process of decision-making. I do not claim that the state of destabilization is particularly anomalous in decision-making processes; on the contrary, it is inevitably present or operational during any process. For instance, I cannot argue that moments of debate or voting, or using technology like microphones in new ways in meetings, are out-of-the-ordinary practices or behaviours in city planning meetings. However, I do argue that the extra attention to the working relations in the process could lead to the detection of effectual moments, which may on the one hand reveal longstanding customs, and on the other distinctive acts that

could make the meeting deviate from a smooth or normal process to sudden acts of delays, silence or the transgression of meeting routines.

I elevate such states of destabilizations in my observations through the lens of controversy, drawn from a methodological approach highlighting otherwise almost imperceptible disruptions of normal orders or relations (e.g. Yaneva, 2012), but which could also be moments of disruption in the constitutive relations of the process. A main intention of this research is to highlight these moments and to expose their mechanisms of emergence, thereby relating paths in the meetings to their origin. Thus, I attempt to discuss destabilizations in their capacity to influence the decisions, and the character of their future actions in the process. This way, time becomes an important factor in itself for the issue at stake in a planning process – e.g. when a destabilization appears, how long it endures, etcetera. These moments are traced here by looking at a range of actors that can help describe situations in which new forms of objectivities, or rather common understandings, may emerge, and where subjective standpoints indirectly (or directly) show themselves in the cause of events that is followed and described (e.g. Callon et al., 2009; Yaneva, 2012; Latour, 2005).

1.2 Research Aims, Purpose and Questions

In light of the previous section, it should be clear that the purpose of this study of city planning meetings is to understand more about decision-making processes by highlighting the kind of interactions in a planning setting that can influence how these processes proceed. Such a broad scope of investigations can elevate the existence of actors or effectual relations that are usually not part of a more rationalist understanding of decision-making processes; it can thus render the formal and informal procedures that are taken-for-granted more transparent, as well as the extent to which they are culture-specific or more general. A justification for this main purpose is that official decision-making processes and the interest of searching for influential moments in it can ultimately lead to concrete effects on the actual built environment of the city, as well as to effects on policies regarding planning. In other words, this thesis addresses general issues of a planning culture, such as democracy and participation, but only in an implicit and situated manner, since the study indirectly highlights how meeting practices in the planning culture provide ways of participation, achieve transparency, and express power relations, and to a lesser degree proposes practical solutions on the ground or explicit participatory instruments.

Through the careful examination of the decision-making process as it is situated in relation to the planning setting in a Jordanian city, it is my aim to render how decision-making agency can be both formally and informally delegated to human actions, to material objects, to technologies related to the planning setting, and to the rules and modes of ordering that govern decision-making. Throughout this thesis, I have attempted to look closely at these complex processes under the state of destabilization, to elucidate the relations between heterogeneous elements – not only from organizational, or legal perspectives, but also within the socio-material relations that may influence the trajectories of the processes. Through this research, I can hopefully make the understanding of such complex processes as decision-making and its interactions more transparent, exposed, and accessible, by highlighting significant elements or decisive relations. The intention has been to search for mechanisms in the decision-making that takes place in meetings and in the municipal setting that can be described in terms that are not only culture-specific, but that, by way of being explained in and out of their own situatedness, also concern planning cultures in other parts of the world, and theories of planning in general.

In line with the above, the first question of this thesis can be expressed: In what ways do destabilizations and influential moments appear in decision-making processes in a city planning context? A second, more detailed question follows: How can destabilizations in a planning process relate to human action, physical objects, and modes of institutional ordering, and indicate possible influential moments? A third question can be expressed as methodological: In what ways can tracing of states of destabilization through the lens of controversy and presenting them as narratives be a valid approach and contribute to future research on meetings and settings of city planning?

Since the key analytical aspect of this research is not only to trace destabilizations or to elevate the moment of influence, but also to elaborate more on their agentic traits as they emerge and influence the process, a general question could be formulated as: what principles of influence in decision-making can be found to be of general interest? Ultimately and rather ambitiously, a general objective of this research is to understand better the manifold aspects that surround and make up the formal decision process of planning, and to pinpoint certain principles that show up as important, or could be important even though they are not recognised for their importance in the official sense. By getting to know these (partially hidden) influencing principles better,

existing decision-making processes, or regulations regarding planning actions.

1.3 Personal Aims and Motivations

While writing this thesis over the past four years, I have sought to reach a deeper understanding of some of the mechanisms in planning practice. Being an architect with practical experiences in the planning field, and most importantly, being a Jordanian citizen who has experienced and been influenced by several emergent conditions in Jordan, have been grounds and motivation for this research. The resulting thesis could thus be seen in the light of three auto-biographical trajectories: my PhD studies bringing me into the world of academia; my previous work experiences in city planning on the municipal level in relation to different Jordanian cities; and ultimately my cultural background, including my own reflections on it and how I have been affected by its changing conditions.

My first explicit encounter with what would become my research interest started with an opportunity to work on a planning project in a municipality in Jordan several years before my research studies. In connection with this experience, my curiosity was aroused about the responsibility of the municipalities in important planning decisions and the influence that a small group of planning representatives have over these decisions and thus on the future of the city. This practical experience left its mark on my education in architecture, and my interest in understanding the field of planning grew, which led me to pursue my master studies in planning, complementing my previous background as an architect. During my masters studies, I was given another opportunity to work with a planning project in another Jordanian city, through which I became more aware of the importance of what is usually planned and determined and shapes the lives of the community. After finishing my master’s degree, and before commencing my PhD studies, I gathered more experience as a civil servant, working closely with a municipal council member – a position in which I learned more about the roles of municipal representatives and the character of municipal council meetings. Having been introduced to the institutional side of decision-making and its working actors, I thus became more interested in understanding its importance and grew more acquainted with how the council members represent a community during the official decision-making processes.

Personal Aims and Motivations

These practical experiences fostered my curiosity as to how and when decisions are actually made, how they influence the city and communities, as well as what kind of background influences, or less visible agendas, might be present in the decision-making processes. Adding to this, my background as a Jordanian citizen has given me the advantage of being familiar with the general culture, making me in a sense an ‘expert’ (Cameron, 2001) on some of the local aspects of the planning culture and its practices. My personal relationship with the practical field of planning in Jordan and several municipal institutions was a motivation for initiating this kind of research, but it also became a source of insight into it, enhancing my ability to sense or unfold the locality aspects of the empirical domain (Amit, 2003). Being a local insider facilitated my investigations as a researcher in the course of action in the municipality without having to go through too complicated preparations, or having to make predictions about what such a presence might bring (Rosaldo, 1993). While this saved me a lot of time as a researcher, it also required me to make a sustained effort to distance my thinking and my behaviour, seeing as I am a locally conditioned native.

During these earlier encounters with the practical field of planning, as a Jordanian citizen I also witnessed and lived with the consequences of many emergent conditions in the country due to the surrounding geo-political circumstances. The location of Jordan and its proximity to countries like Syria, Palestine, and Iraq have meant that extremely high and unexpected numbers of migrants have crossed into the country’s borders in the past three decades. In a short period of time, specific demands have been put on planning practice, impacting it on everyday terms and making it more responsive to planning-related aspects in the surrounding context. For instance, the tact with which demands have changed on many Jordanian cities has sped up planning operations, often with ad hoc strategies driven by scattered wills, and newly emergent motifs which make a comprehensive overview of the planning objectives difficult. Due to the influx of large numbers of migrants, and because of Jordan’s limited resources, urgent kinds of problems in planning have challenged the country’s practice and management system. These circumstances have also brought forth a central question about the priorities of strategic formations in many cities, and how urgency and temporality can be deliberated and handled in official planning institutions. These circumstances have not only created many practical challenges for planning in Jordan, they also have been a motivation for doing this kind of research, giving it importance on an existential level.

Generally speaking, planning research in Jordan has taken only a limited interest in these conditions of the local context (Alnsour & Meaton, 2015). Most of the research done in and about Jordan that relates to the topic of this thesis discusses planning issues and challenges from policy formulation perspectives without looking further into the daily practice that this research tackles (e.g. Meaton & Alnsour, 2012; Fraihat, 2016; Tarrad, 2014; Alnsour, 2014). Likewise, few previous international studies have addressed decision-making as situated in planning contexts in Jordan (Sqour, 2014; Alnsour, 2014).

During my PhD studies, I have read, analysed, and written a range of different planning-oriented texts that enriched my knowledge and strengthened my capabilities to approach planning with a research-based awareness. Additionally, after having spent the years of my PhD studies in Sweden, far from my original context, I recognise more clearly that Jordan has its own cultural distinctions and special conditions to which I am exposed, in part unconsciously, as a citizen, but also more explicitly or sometimes drastically, in my role as an observing researcher. This actualizes the dilemma of differentiating between experience and learning, as well as between local and general conditions of planning: “Planners who are steeped in their own national cultures and have studied planning at a national university may not even be aware that what they take for granted at home may not, in fact, be universally acknowledged” (Friedmann, 2012:96). Thus, in this thesis I bring to a certain extent my own personal experiences, my social and cultural situatedness, my planning practice insights, and my knowledge of political states and changes into the research mode where I need to assess the situations of detailed planning from an empirical base. These engagements have stimulated my research dynamisms and my urge to study and understand more about decision-making processes, and they have also had an impact on my methodological and theoretical choices, relating this research to established research domains. With this research, I hope to contribute knowledge about how current changing conditions in planning are handled – conditions that are not exclusive to Jordan nor to any other specific city, but that concern many countries in the world.

1.4 Methodological Approaches and Main Theoretical

Domains

The empirical base for this thesis is in attending, working in, experiencing and studying selected planning and consultation events on the municipal level in relation to Nodecity. The empirical investigations were focused primarily in two locations: the main meeting room of Nodecity Municipality, and the meeting room in one of the local districts. I have also changed the district’s name for anonymity reasons; I call the district the Downstage District1 _{in this thesis. The Downstage District is an}

administrative part of Nodecity Municipality, and it is one of the main locations of the research investigations, where several local official decision-making processes were observed.

The field studies were conducted in two main periods: a preparatory phase, and a second period during which I collected data. In the preparatory phase, I paved the way for my data collection and introduced myself as a researcher for the study context. The methods applied in the two periods were mainly participant observation derived from ethnographic approaches, by which I pursued the fieldwork by attending and observing city planning meetings. In the main, second, data collection period, which lasted three months, I attended and observed eighteen municipal council meetings, as well as twelve local district committee meetings in the Downstage District. In conjunction with the preparatory phase a year earlier, these months of observations were enough for me to gather sufficient information covering a variety of meetings, and to allow me to develop my note-taking and literary skills as an observer (Friedmann, 2012). Participant observation served a key purpose in exploring the collective social, tracing multi-layered practices and dialogues in the meetings and in some offices, recognising socio-cultural elements, and noticing specific details about the architecture of spaces (Amit, 2003). By depending on participant observation, I was able to join the actors during their actions in the meetings and to follow their behaviours, as well as their locational and temporal relations (Kawulich, 2005).

The methodological approach also depended on other sources, such as official documents, social media websites, and semi-structured interviews; for instance,

1 _{The term ‘downstage’ refers to the technical theatre term that describes the platform beside the main area of a} performance. I chose this district as one of the main districts in Nodecity in part because when I was preparing for the data collection period, I developed good relations with the committee members of this district and its chairperson, which facilitated later investigations.

eighteen interviews were conducted with municipal council members and managers in the data collection period. All of these other sources and interviews enhanced the understanding of the research matter, and supported my participant observations whenever there was a need to extend my investigations. Generally, I intended to keep my methodological approaches flexible towards the emerging situations, following anything with the potential to provide more understanding of the context, ready to follow for instance the situations in which there were suddenly and unexpected moments of deviation from the normal pace.

The methodological approach of participant observation supported with interviews can be linked in a natural way to a main methodological-theoretical repertory for this research, namely Actor-Network Theory (ANT). Ethnographical approaches as an established discipline and tradition and ANT as an approach for studying the interaction between humans and their surroundings are both broadly inductive and attentive to the heterogeneity of entities that compose social interactions (Nimmo, 2011). With the sensibility of ANT towards different kind of actors, and most importantly the materiality aspects, the research investigations can be attentive to any agentic capacity that has the ability to influence and make a difference in the meeting procedures (e.g. Callon, 1986; 1987; Callon & Latour, 1992; Latour, 1996). ANT concepts challenge the taken-for-granted disciplinary – especially sociological – categorisation of real world events by letting human as well as non-human actors to be seen as equals, without any pre-determined hierarchy as regards their capacity of interaction, influencing each other and producing constitutive socio-material relations. Therefore, with ANT concepts in mind, the chairs, tables and other artefacts defining the totality of the meeting room can be seen not only as passive furniture and specific technologies affording a meeting to be held, but as we will see, these objects and technologies can also have other vital roles during some moments, defining influences.

Thinking in terms of ANT has also indirectly influenced the way in which different theories have been employed in this thesis. ANT has allowed and helped me to gradually build up the research theories by incorporating them successively, following the need to make explanations of situations as they show up in my reflections on observations. The theories accounted for in this research are thus not bound exclusively to any specific defined research domain or discipline. Although written from a planning theory foundation, and with the effects of the final actions in cities firmly in mind, this research takes on decision-making also by referring to domains of organizational theory, political science, sociology, or social studies, as major disciplines

Methodological Approaches and Main Theoretical Domains

that have studied decision-making before; however, as a newcomer to these fields, I do not delve deeply into these discourses.

Additionally, planning theories encompass a wide spectrum of concepts and ideas that provide relevant contextualization for many arguments throughout this research. What becomes apparent in the following is that the many ground-breaking ideas and works that the planning theorist Patsy Healey has brought to the planning field, turning the views of rationalist beliefs in structured orders into a more community-based communicational approach are considered in particular here. Some of the tenets of Healey’s work align with my research intentions, especially the relational approach to planning (e.g. Healey, 2006a; 2006b; 2007; 1996), even though I do not deal directly with the worlds of end users, i.e. the concerned, geographically situated people and communities, which is central in that branch of planning theory. Healey has been recognised as understanding planning practice from details and foundations, still with a broad policy- and governance-oriented framing, seeing planning practice as “a fundamentally normative activity […], which further means that we always have to keep tabs on exactly which norms and values are being enacted and propagated in the micro of planning ‘episodes’ and the macro of larger ‘endeavours’” (Hillier & Metzger, 2015: 3).

In my attempts to incorporate different planning theories, or ideas from organizational theories and political science, I have mainly approached those that have established insights by relating their original fields to ANT’s ideas or concepts. For instance, from the field of planning theory, I have acknowledged the views of the planning theoretician Jonathan Metzger in regard to exploring entanglements from a more-than-human perspective, as well as his concept of stakeholderness (e.g. Metzger, 2014a; 2014b; 2015). Furthermore, discussions related to agentic spatiotemporal productions in some parts of this research have been inspired by the architectural theoretician Mattias Kärrholm (e.g. 2005; 2017). In general, I keep the different theorised concepts and well-researched domains together (and separate) by positioning them in relation to what I found in the decision-making situations studied, which makes their diverse employment above all empirically driven by the context that they attempt to explain. This also means that the overall theoretical relevancy of this research could be characterized as relational, situational, and inclusive of socio-material perspectives, as key theoretical features in the work of ANT scholars.

By referring to different scholars, a number of ANT-based concepts about the heterogeneity of influential agency, the mechanisms of delegation of agency to objects,

and the impact of arrangements related to decision-making have been employed in several places in this thesis. I have related particularly to the ideas of the sociologist John Law, because I found in my broad reading of ANT resources that Law’s texts could provide relevant explanations for what I promote as studies of destabilizations, influential moments, and emergent disruption mechanisms. Furthermore, several of his case studies, such as those he discusses in relation to ‘Organizing Modernity’ (Law, 1994), directly highlight and relate to the context of the organization with which I am dealing in this thesis, i.e. the institution of the municipality. Mentioning Law specifically, however, should not diminish the importance of other original ANT sources for this thesis, such as the profound works of Bruno Latour and Anne Marie Mol, in addition to a range of later scholars and interpreters.

Some ANT-inspired strategies and tactics have also enriched my methodological approaches and guided me during the observation period, such as primarily following the actors and observing their interactions (Venturini, 2010). The observational notes were transcribed into 180 pages of detailed rendering of episodes from meeting events (30 meetings) and other related situations that I followed. The transcribed data from my observations conveys details and thick descriptions about the characteristics of several spaces in the planning setting: size and spatial extensions, materials and their treatment, installed technologies such as air conditioning, and other sensorial details. This is supplemented with details about the meeting attendees’ physical movements, verbal and facial expressions, their tones of voices, their interactions and relations with the physical objects, as well as the spatial arrangement of the meeting rooms.

For the process of isolating and detecting the focus of this research – namely states of destabilization – I depended on what has been termed the lens of controversy, which helped me elevate any action that stood out as special from the normal course of actions observed. With the lens of controversy as methodological guidance, I could highlight the moments when “shared uncertainty” (Yaneva, 2011: 121) was more dominant. I was able to select almost imperceptible destabilizations of normal orders or relations, as well as moments of clear dialogic conflict, or when material disruptions to the process were more obvious in an affective sense. This way, I allowed the observed entities to participate in and to some extent steer the analysis (e.g. Law, 2004), letting them come to the fore in a way that reflected my attention to them as well as focusing on the deviating interactions in the meeting.

In order to describe these selected destabilizations as they occurred in the meetings, and to communicate the caused effects and the predisposing conditions of

Disposition of the Thesis; Empirical Fragments with a Successive Theoretical Approach

their emergence, I chose to write about them in a narrative style. The key focus in my use of a narrative style in this research is the gradual presentation of the selected events of destabilizations as a coherent shape of space and time. With narratives, I was first and foremost able to render the situation of destabilization with its temporality, letting its sequential nature occur again through the text, recalling how I had experienced the sometimes scattered events as whole sequences as an observer (Rantakari & Vaara, 2016), and to convey as much as possible about the surrounding realities of facts, objects, spaces, and arguments (Bomble, 2013).

Each narrative in the chapters that follow has one coherent plot that describes one main event of destabilization, or one main character that causes or is influenced by a destabilization, which justifies my use of certain thematic titles for the narratives, such as: ‘Mobile Phones’, ‘Air Conditioning (AC)’, or ‘Welcome, Have a Seat’. Some of the narratives, for instance in Chapters 2 and 3, can be seen as captured events necessary for giving some contextual details about locations, their spatial characteristics and architecture, or some factual insights into institutional events. Thus, each narrative in the thesis has its own purpose in supporting the section where it is situated, and most importantly, each narrative makes up the core of the analytical discussions that generally follow the narrative text in each section. The writing style of the narrative text and the analytical discussions differs, and is distinguished by the discussions being entangled with theoretical reflections, drawing more general thoughts from the specific events presented in the narratives. The overall sequence of the occurrence of the narratives throughout the thesis has its own influence on the disposition of the research contents.

1.5 Disposition of the Thesis; Empirical Fragments with a

Successive Theoretical Approach

The overall plot of this thesis is a cumulative tale of the story of a decision-making culture, recounted in two main parts containing in total six chapters, and a concluding part. Each chapter adds to this overall research plot with a new contribution to the understanding of decision-making from different perspectives. Generally, the chapters in the first part give the reader an overall image about the cultural context and the setting of decision-making. The second part focuses on the research’s main interest – the tracing of destabilizations – and the discussion of influential moments. Finally, a

third part summarizes the main results and concludes with some principles and notes on the role of time in decision-making in planning.

The main interest of this thesis gradually unfolds as the chapters go on. I have crafted this research and shaped its contents “by the patterns of interaction and practice that it’s immersed in”; thus, I depend on these interactions between the research contents of narratives and theories to “let the research unfold” (Law & Singleton, 2013: 488). By counting on the position of the narratives when arranging the research’s parts, I not only successively render the reality that I observed to the reader, but I also transfer a gradually developing theoretical understanding of the research matters. The theorizing in the analytical discussions after each narrative aims in part to create a distance from, or to generalize, the content of a narrative given as a plot, but above all to see how it triggers a variety of theoretical angles. This theorizing according to the situations in each narrative means that the literature review of this thesis is not gathered as a total overview in one chapter, but is scattered everywhere, situated in relation to observational findings as the text goes on. This successively presented diversity is developed along the overall text of the thesis and concerns for instance how decisive agency is delegated, how temporal smoothness of dialogues is interrupted, allowing new communicative spaces to appear, and how surrounding entities and isolated actors can act at a distance to influence decision-making. In the later chapters, the focus turns more towards how heterogeneous entities together perform a sense of organization, or how they collectively handle an organizational errand.

After this introductory chapter, Chapter Two presents a background about Jordan, describing some of the geo-political and cultural circumstances that have shaped its planning practice and its planning regulations, and how this relates to time. In regard to the situations that Nodecity and many other Jordanian cities have faced, I use a planning project to exemplify how historical, geo-political, and institutional aspects have influenced the planning practice in general. The aim of Chapter Two is to give a background to the adaptation of strategic planning to current demands, without becoming detached from traditional institutional frameworks, or in other words, from what defines, as in any planning practice in the world, the current planning culture. In Chapter Two, presented by an opening narrative, I also discuss the broader network to which I claim any official decision-making relates, with the idea of the planning setting as a supportive network providing legal, spatial, and material conditions for the process of making. The final section in Chapter Two discusses a case of decision-making by which the positioning of this research in relation to traced destabilizations

in the dialogic contents, material presence, and meeting routines begins to be shown. In a theoretical perspective, certain ideas from relevant disciplines are introduced within this chapter, with the main aim of positioning the research.

In Chapter Three, which mainly concerns methodology, I expand on what I have introduced in the present chapter. A theoretical background based on my main methodological approaches for collecting, presenting, and analysing the data is provided in Chapter 3, which thus has three subsections devoted to ethnographic approaches, controversy, and narrative respectively, supported by two sections about ANT as a main repertory for sensing interaction with matter, and a short note about situatedness as part of the methodological approach. With this chapter ends the first main part of the thesis, which is about the positioning and explanation of the type of research conducted here.

After examining my initial observations, in the second part of this thesis I present destabilizations as roughly addressing three main domains, dividing the following three chapters in this second part: Chapter 4 focuses on human talking and acting; i.e. in procedures during meetings where dialogue and acting tactics are revealed as also engaging networks outside of the meeting room. In Chapter 5, I demonstrate how physical matter and technologies that are part of decision-making processes may trigger destabilizations and influential moments. In Chapter 6, I examine the process from a more diverse, or heterogeneous perspective, albeit with slightly more focus on how modes of ordering have an effect on the ways the meeting event proceeds. Each of the three chapters of the second part thus has a dominant or focused type of destabilization; however, it is important to note here that in practice, every meeting event of course contains a mix of all types of actors and several types of destabilizations (some of which are left unanalysed, while others are more in focus). The analytical discussions in these chapters have been incorporated with theoretical supportive studies about organizations, meetings, or planning in general, still with an overall attempt to extend beyond merely human actions and be more sensitive towards materials with ANT-related concepts. Each chapter in the second part ends with a postlude that summarizes the analytical discussions by highlighting significant traced moments and expanding to general concepts in planning theory and other theoretical insights.

The concluding part of this thesis contains first of all conclusions regarding what have been gained from the analytical investigations, highlighting some remarks about the planning setting, the adopted methodological approaches, and how the results of this research can contribute to the practical and theoretical field, informing possible

future research. The concluding discussions also illuminate some principles that can be described as significant figures of thought that have emerged from studying the decision-making of an institutional body, and that could be pinpointed as providing a new understanding of complex processes. A couple of brief notes are made about time in a subsection of this final part, where I briefly recall some of the findings and link them to the background purposes and drives behind this research, as well as briefly describing some of the time-related mechanisms that have appeared to influence meetings and decision-making in this study.

2

The Planning Culture and the Local Planning Setting

of Nodecity

2.1 Introduction about Planning Culture

This chapter introduces some aspects related to the planning culture that contextualises this study, as well as discusses the notion of ‘planning culture’. It contains a brief outline of the history of planning in Jordan and relates this historical review to the development of the planning practice in Nodecity. I use a planning project as an example in order to demonstrate how a planning approach in Nodecity has been altered due to unexpected political, demographic and social-cultural circumstances, and how these circumstances have recently influenced the city’s planning culture. In this chapter, I also discuss situatedness as a positioning related to the study of the official decision-making processes of Nodecity’s planning meetings.

Planning can be described as a social and an interactive activity that is bound and related to specific local contexts, determining planning issues, objectives, norms, ways and methods of practicing planning (Knieling & Othengrafen, 2015; Othengrafen & Reimer, 2013). Therefore, planning is a response to the context’s conditions, influenced by its contingencies and it can be altered across historical and institutional development. Friedmann (1967) suggests that planning operates within specific frames of organizational and institutional conditions (rules and stakeholders) that determine the scope, content, and procedure of planning processes, thus identifying what could be recognized as the planning culture. These circumstances shape what Friedmann calls the ‘main axes of cultural differences’ that influence any planning practice (Friedmann, 2011: 165-166). These four axes of cultural differences can imply that the planning culture of Nodecity is different from other planning cultures in Jordanian cities and in the world, due to: (1) its institutional context, i.e. its municipality and other responsible institutions that specifically institutionalize and enact the planning practice; (2) the specific social context that distinguishes Nodecity from other cities, related to how its citizens recognize their way of understanding and interacting with the planning process; (3) the unforeseen temporalities to which planning always relates, is influenced by, and to some extent creates itself, causing for

instance the reorientation of when and how planning objectives are stated, and planning actions pursued; (4) the overall level of economic development of the country that could have a substantial influence on other national systems, such as social and planning systems. In a brief take, these four axes show some aspects of why and how planning’s styles can be different, and how these differences can be related to regulation as well as social practices of different contexts, shaping different planning cultures (Friedmann, 2005; see also Abram, 2011; Healey, 2013; Knieling & Othengrafen, 2015; Young 2008).

A number of studies of planning culture have attempted to acknowledge the local situations and micro-planning practices in relation to the institutional, legislative, and historical conditions that contextualize a planning culture (e.g. Reimer, 2013; Sandercock, 2005; Sanyal, 2005). The notion of planning culture can also indicate the social richness, values, and norms that go beyond an exclusively document-based or prescribed set of rules and regulations in planning that only covers certain organizational aspects of processes and policies (Hillier, 1999; see also Booth, 2009; Knieling & Othengrafen, 2015). In this thesis, planning culture refers on the one hand to an acknowledgement of how specific practices in planning relate to an overall social structure, thus following what Healey (1997: 37) implies when describing culture as ‘‘the system of meanings and frames of references through which people in social situations shape their institutional practices’’. On the other hand, this thesis also recognises that planning culture can indicate the managerial strategies of the involved group of stakeholders (Abram, 2011), the set of recognized or unexpressed traditions, unconscious routines, cognitive beliefs and orientations that guide the involved stakeholders and influence how planning is practiced (Booth, 2009; Othengrafen, 2012; Othengrafen & Reimer, 2013).

In the following, I begin by describing some of ‘‘the particularities of history, beliefs and values, political and legal traditions, different socio-economic patterns’’ (Knieling & Othengrafen, 2015: 301) that have gradually shaped the planning culture of many Jordanian cities, and their statutory planning, such as that of Nodecity. Approaching the traits of a planning practice by considering historical changes can be a practical way of understanding the institutional setting, organization, and the policies that influence and are influenced by these changes (Abbot & Adler, 1989). It could also reveal sustaining and underlying historical influences on planning practice, as well as objectives for its future (Othengrafen, 2012). In particular, this chapter regards --- partly through a briefly sketched planning project --- recent reformations in statutory planning

as new challenges have emerged, and partly international challenges that have influenced social-cultural perceptions of renewal and heritage, as well as views on time. Thus, in the following, both implicit influences and explicit legal frameworks are discussed in order to situate current conditions. While this thesis is not intended as a study of a specific culture, the situations in Jordan, and the case of Nodecity are important here to an extent, in the sense that ongoing processes of decision-making in ‘‘planning cannot be understood except in the context of the constitutional arrangements, the legal framework and a culture of decision-making which are specific to the country and are a product of its history’’ (Booth, 2009: 678).

2.2 Jordan and the Development of its Planning Culture

The country of Jordan is divided into three main regions: the northern, central and southern regions (UN, 2001). Administratively, these regions are also divided into a governorate system that forms the twelve governorates distributed geographically around Jordan. Each governorate is divided into municipalities, and each municipality is governed by an elected municipal council; one of these is Nodecity Municipality2_.

The geographical borders of the municipality can include a number of villages and neighbourhoods. These administrative and geographical divisions are reflected in the division of planning levels, directly related to a responsible institution, and indicating the scale of planning responsibility and implementation (see Table 1, p.35).

In most Jordanian cities, urban expansion has been related to changes such as natural population increases, economical enhancement, and political situations following Jordan’s independence (Tarrad, 2014). With these demographic changes linked to major historical events, planning practices in Jordan started to evolve, becoming more systemized and regulated by a legal system implemented to cope with urban expansion into the city’s lands and its resources. For instance, the early foundations of Jordan’s planning system emerged in the Ottoman Empire in the late nineteenth century, and provided an early town council system that managed planning issues in many Jordanian cities (Fraihat, 2016; see also The World Bank, 2005). This system resulted in the first Ottoman Law of Municipalities in 1877 (Fraihat, 2016).

2 _{This and all other place names in this thesis have been changed for anonymity purposes; see the chapter Methodology.}

Another major turn in Jordan’s planning history took place during the period of the British Advisory (1920-1946), which had a political, cultural and institutional influence on the country’s formation (Ababsa, 2011). In addition to adopting the same main responsibilities as the British system in the later Jordanian governments with regard to main enacted laws for the country systems and their political delegation, it also impacted the major planning systems (Alnsour, 2006; UN, 2001). As a consequence of adopting the British planning system as a basis for city planning system in Jordan, a British legal system was adopted in part in the First Municipal Law of 1955, which stated that the official role of managing and planning Jordanian cities belonged to the municipal council in each city (Fraihat, 2016; Meaton & Alnsour, 2012). This First Municipal Law of 1955 also marked the beginning of several institutional establishments in Jordan, such as the Village and Building Law3 _{of 1966,}

No. 79, the second planning law in Jordan, which is still active today (Meaton & Alnsour, 2012; Tarrad, 2014). The contents of the law of 1966, No. 79, were based primarily on the opinions of British consultants, containing mandates similar to those in their planning system (Meaton & Alnsour, 2012). The influence of such western colonisations promoted imported practices of planning, leading to alien implants in planning practices that did not take into consideration the local needs of a broader population (Healey, 2015; see also Roy, 2009; Watson, 2009).

The Village and Building Law of 1966, No. 79 divides planning processes into four main levels: the national, regional, structural, and local --- relating to and reflecting the responsible institution, the scale of implementation, and the planning outcomes in each of the four levels, (see Table 1). These levels aimed to enable an effective and flexible planning system and management for the country’s resources in relation to different geographical and administrative divisions (Alnsour, 2006; Meaton & Alnsour, 2012).

3 _{In this thesis I will refer to the Village and Building Law of the year 1966 No. 79, as (Village and Building Law, 1996} No.79). I will also refer to the Municipal Law issued by the Jordanian Ministry of Municipalities in the year 2015 as (Municipal Law, 2015). For a full reference on both of these laws see the reference list. The Municipal Law specifies the duties of the municipal council, or the local communities in cities, whereas the Village and Building Law is more general, regulating planning issues related to the four planning levels.